Senior Media Systems & Engineer Lead

Overview

The Senior Media Systems & Engineer Lead is responsible for leading the technology, financial management, and workflow transformation initiatives that power modern media production environments. This role combines engineering experience, budget ownership, asset lifecycle management, AI-driven process innovation, and cross-functional leadership to deliver reliable, scalable, and efficient production ecosystems.

The position sits in Production Studios, part of the Global Event Production and Studios Team (CC&AI), and serves as the strategic bridge between Engineering, Production, Creative, Finance, Procurement, Legal, IT, and external vendors, ensuring that technology investments, infrastructure, and operational workflows align with business objectives.

The role is responsible for leading engineering strategy, production systems, technology roadmaps, and AI-enabled workflow evolution, while managing capital planning, engineering budgets, procurement activities, and initiatives from planning through execution.

Microsoft's mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. As employees, we come together with a growth mindset, innovate to empower others, and collaborate to realize our shared goals. Each day, we build on our values of respect, integrity, and accountability to create a culture of inclusion where everyone can thrive at work and beyond.

Responsibilities

Media Systems Engineering & Technical Operations

• Design, deploy, and support secure, reliable, and scalable media production, post-production, collaboration, storage, networking, and content delivery systems.

• Lead system architecture, technology integration, operational readiness, troubleshooting, and lifecycle support for major productions, broadcasts, events, and campaigns.

• Establish engineering standards, documentation, operating procedures, and continuous-improvement practices that strengthen performance, security, availability, and user experience.

Technology Strategy, Financial & Asset Management

• Develop technology strategies and modernization roadmaps aligned with business priorities, production requirements, emerging capabilities, and long-term operational needs.

• Own engineering budget planning, AOP development, forecasting, financial reporting, and capital and operational expenditure management.

• Manage hardware, software, licensing, support agreements, capitalized assets, depreciation, technology refresh cycles, and lifecycle planning.

• Evaluate investments, spending trends, and vendor solutions to maximize value, compliance, operational effectiveness, and long-term sustainability.

Program, Vendor and Workflow Transformation

• Lead complex cross-functional programs from strategy and planning through deployment, adoption, and measurable business outcomes.

• Manage project plans, schedules, budgets, resources, risks, stakeholder communications, and executive-level reporting.

• Manage vendor relationships, contracts, procurement activities, service agreements, onboarding, performance, and delivery against operational requirements.

• Assess and transform engineering, production, and operational workflows through automation, AI-assisted capabilities, process optimization, and scalable technology adoption.

Embody our culture and values.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• Bachelors Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology (IT), or related field AND 5+ years technical support, technical consulting experience, or information technology experience

OR equivalent experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience, education, or certification in project management (CAPM/ PMP/PMI) or related course work.

• Experience leading cross-functional programs and managing concurrent projects in complex organizational environments.

• Experience with SMPTE 2110 standards and practices, and an understanding of networking, production workflows, and content management platforms.

• 6 + years of experience supporting media production, post-production, broadcast, gaming, entertainment, or creative technology environments.

• Experience managing engineering budgets, capital planning, depreciation tracking, procurement processes, and vendor contracts.

• Experience in creating and managing Purchase Orders (POs), Statements of Work (SOWs), and technology procurement initiatives.

• Experience in designing and supporting media production infrastructure, storage platforms, asset management systems, and distributed collaboration environments.

• Experience evaluating and implementing AI-driven process improvements and workflow automation.

• Experience in financial management, budgeting, and business operations.

• Experience with Microsoft 365 and tools for project tracking, work management, knowledge management, documentation, collaboration, and creative production, including Jira, Azure DevOps, ServiceNow, Asana, Confluence, SharePoint, Notion, Parsec, Adobe Creative Suite, or similar platforms.

Technical Support Engineering IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $106,400 - $203,600 per year. There is a different range applicable to specific work locations, within the San Francisco Bay area and New York City metropolitan area, and the base pay range for this role in those locations is USD $137,600 - $222,600 per year.

Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here:

https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-corporate-pay

This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, citizenship, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, immigration status, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran or military status, race, ethnicity, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable local laws, regulations and ordinances. If you need assistance with religious accommodations and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.